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Mejengo Preschool in Ndanda, Mtwara Region. The Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) has been making significant contributions to the Early Childhood Development (ECD) sector in Tanzania for three decades.

AKDN / Lucas Cuervo Moura

The Aga Khan Nursery School in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

AKDN / Jean-Luc Ray

Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) supported school, Tanzania.

AKDN / Christopher Wilton-Steer

AKU's Institute for Educational Development in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, is making impressive contributions to improving education in East Africa.

AKDN / Gary Otte

Artist-rendering of the Dar es Salaam Academy, Tanzania.

AKDN

Education

In Tanzania, AKDN works to strengthen education systems in a number of ways ranging from the direct provision of education services through its own schools to system-wide education strengthening programmes directed at marginalised communities.

The Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) has been making significant contributions to the Early Childhood Development (ECD) sector in Tanzania for three decades. AKF has pioneered the provision of high quality, culturally-relevant and holistic early childhood development amongst communities in Zanzibar and Southern Tanzania.

The programme focuses on transforming the quality of life of young children and their families, building strong institutions, leaders and professionals, and contributing to networks, research and policy. Through its Madrasa Early Childhood Programme, over 10,000 children, 50 percent of them girls, benefit from the current support to 81 community-based preschools in Zanzibar. AKF is also giving increasing attention towards supporting children under the age of three, focusing on better parenting and caregiver interventions. In 2014, AKF and the Madrasa Early Childhood Programme in Zanzibar embarked on a partnership to deliver professional development to 900 teachers across 400 preschools while assisting the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training to mainstream the community-based pre-schooling approach.

In addition, the Aga Khan Education Services operates two nursery schools that provide high quality educational experiences within learning spaces that are contextually relevant, promote best practice, and integrate families. The schools are in Dar es Salaam and Mwanza.

The first Aga Khan Girls School was built in Zanzibar in 1905. The Aga Khan Education Services (AKES) now operates two schools in Dar es Salaam, and aims to provide quality education that imparts a broad set of skills and knowledge with a commitment to pluralism and ethical conduct.

Established in 1993, the Aga Khan Primary School was the first private English-medium primary school in post-free market Tanzania economy. With a current enrolment of over 600 students, the school offers several curricula, including the Primary Years Programme (PYP), the British curriculum and the International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma. At the secondary school level the National curriculum runs as a parallel stream. The IB students of the Aga Khan Mzizima Secondary School maintain above average scores and consistently gain admission to prestigious universities worldwide. The secondary school in Dar es Salaam has over 600 students. Plans are underway for a new school to be co-located on the Aga Khan University Principal Campus in Arusha. In 2000, His Highness the Aga Khan established the Aga Khan Academies, an integrated network of 18 residential schools being developed across Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The Academies identify students of exceptional promise from all backgrounds and educate them for future leadership of their countries and regions. It is merit based so deserving students may apply for financial assistance. The Aga Khan Academy to be built in Dar es Salaam will share a campus with Aga Khan University’s Institute for Educational Development (AKU-IED).

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A depiction of the Aga Khan University’s future campus in Arusha,Tanzania.

The Aga Khan University (AKU) in East Africa occupies a central role in developing skilled professionals with an ethic of social responsibility and commitment to serving their communities.

Through its Master of Education degree and short and certificate courses, the Institute for Educational Development in Dar es Salaam develops educators who are transforming classroom instruction and school management, replacing traditional methods of rote learning with a student-centered approach that builds problem-solving skills and encourages independent thinking. Many IED alumni hold important positions in public and private education systems, enabling them to advocate for and implement new policies and reforms that impact large numbers of students. To date, the Institute has awarded more than 250 master’s degrees and trained more than 3,000 educators through its certificate programmes, short courses and workshops. In 2014, the Institute’s faculty and alumni worked together to train more than 800 secondary school head teachers in Uganda under a grant from the World Bank and in cooperation with the Ministry of Education. The Institute is currently working with other agencies of the Aga Khan Development Network to improve education at the pre-primary and primary levels in marginalized areas of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda as part of a five-year, $31.8 million project funded by the Canadian government and the Aga Khan Foundation, Strengthening Education Systems in East Africa. In Tanzania, the project is focused on Mtwara and Lindi. The Aga Khan University School of Nursing and Midwifery programme in Dar es Salaam aims to strengthen health systems in Tanzania by upgrading nursing skills, improving the quality of health care and developing new and more professional nursing courses.<--break->In responding to the need for health sector reform in Tanzania, the programme is tailored to ensure health services are more responsive to the needs of the people and uses an innovative curricular approach that enables nurses to obtain professional qualifications while working. Between 2005 and 2016, 295 nurses were awarded diplomas and 311 graduated with post-Registered Nurse Bachelor of Science Nursing degrees. In addition, the University trains urgently needed specialist physicians in family medicine, surgery and internal medicine through its four-year, full-time Postgraduate Medical Education programme at the Aga Khan Hospital in Dar es Salaam. The Aga Khan University Faculty of Arts and Sciences (AKU- FAS) in Arusha will offer undergraduate and graduate studies that are tailored to meet the opportunities and challenges of contemporary East Africa. This marks the transformation of AKU from a university focused on the health sciences and education to a comprehensive university with a strong emphasis on the study of the liberal arts.

Through the Coastal Rural Support Programme (CRSP), the Aga Khan Foundation is collaborating with the Government of Tanzania to improve learning outcomes for boys and girls at pre-primary and primary levels in the Lindi region.

The programme is supporting professional development of educators in 150 schools, strengthening teacher training institutions and the district and ward education support system, capacity building of school management committees and engaging communities to support education of their children through innovative approaches, such as setting up community libraries. AKF has also partnered with the Tanzanian Institute of Education and The Education Quality Improvement Programme – Tanzania (DFID funded) to develop the school readiness programme currently being piloted in seven regions. Plans are underway to roll-out the programme in all regions of the country.

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Pupils at Mgeta Primary School, Morogoro region, Tanzania.

AKDN / Paul Joynson-Hicks

Strengthening Education Systems in East Africa (SESEA)

SESEA is a regional project implemented by AKDN and supported by Global Affairs Canada and, in Tanzania, is implemented in partnership with the government in the southern part of the country. The programme reaches over 150 schools, helping establish community-based libraries, improving teacher skills for close to 600 teachers, and directly benefitting 60,000 students.

The overall objective of SESEA is to improve the learning and education performance of boys and girls, particularly in reading and writing, and mathematics, at pre-primary and primary levels.